This week on Operation Kino, we don't have enough time to pay the bus fare, so we're sticking around to review the new Andrew Niccol thriller In Time, then moving on to a segment three discussion of Halloween and the kinds of movies we find scary. Before that, though, we kick things off with a lightning round devoted to Shakespeare adaptations (or were they written by Shakespeare at all? who knows!), then move on to tidbits, where Da7e is worried about the old Muppeteers being unhappy with the new version of The Muppets, David wants you all to see The Rum Diary, Patches has a few words to say about the new indie Natural Selection, and Katey wishes anybody would watch Bored to Death, because it's great. We end, as always, with your lightning round answers for dessert.

This week on Operation Kino, the movie industry has let us down severely, with pretty much nothing in wide release this week holding our interest. Instead we review a movie opening on just 4 screens this weekend, the very worthy Martha Marcy May Marlene, then dedicate segment three to our first-ever trivia game! Find out how David, Dave and Patches fare when quizzed on memorable movie quotes from this year's biggest hits. Before that, though, we've got a lightning round dedicated to on-screen revolutions, and then tidbits, in which David talks about the arty Emily Browning movie Sleeping Beauty, Katey talks in vague terms about Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Patches gives you the rundown on New York Comic Con and the wonderment that is Tom Hiddleston, and Da7e has a bone to pick with Target and their strategy of releasing the new Harry Potter documentary with the Blu-Ray. We wrap things up, as always, with your Lightning Round answers for dessert.

This week on Operation Kino, three of us have seen the new prequel to The Thing… but how do you know which three? How do you even know who to trust? You can find that out in our review segment, which leads into a wrap-up of the New York Film Festival, including David waxing rhapsodic about some foreign films you actually will get the chance to see at some point. Before any of that, though, there's our Lightning Round inspired by Footloose, then tidbits, in which Katey is looking forward to next spring's Titanic re-release, David is amazed by a work-in-progress screening of Martin Scorsese's Hugo, Patches has no idea why anyone would read the Game of Thrones books, and Da7e shares what he learned by doing a lot of reading over the summer. We wrap things up, as always, with your Lightning Round answers for dessert.

And if you're in the New York area, for New York Comic Con or no, come hang out with the entire Operation Kino crew TONIGHT, Friday October 14; we'll be at the Reunion Surf Bar at 44th Street and 9th Avenue starting at 8 pm, and would love to meet anyone who's been listening to the show.

Welcome to the latest installment of the ongoing series Virgin Territory, in which I watch a movie I've never seen and talk about it with someone who loves it. This week I sit down with our own Movie News Editor Eric Eisenberg, who is one of many, many people who has insisted over the years that I finally see John Carpenter's The Thing. Of course, I then made the mistake of seeing the new The Thing movie before the original, but I was impressed enough by the practical effects, mounting tension, and Kurt Russell's massive hat in the original that I think I made up for it.

Check out our 15 minute conversation below, in which we talk about why those practical effects are so original, how they build tension without going for the standard horror movie jump scares, and how it fits in with the kind of horror movies being made at the time that no one these days seems to be able to match.

For the rest of the Virgin Territory series, go here, where you can find me talking The Road Warrior with Max Evry, Apocalypse Now with Dave Gonzales, Superman: The Movie with Matt Patches, All the President's Men with James Rocchi, Terms of Endearment with Mike Ryan, and The Evil Dead with Eric Eisenberg.

This week on Operation Kino, David is off avenging the death of his father, or chasing down the dog who ate his homework, or something-- whatever he's up to, he's not on the podcast. Lucky for us we found an excellent replacement, drafting the Slashfilmcast's Devindra Hardawar to help us review Real Steel, and in segment three talk about political movies, as inspired by The Ides of March. Before that, though, we've got a lightning round (very) loosely inspired by The Human Centipede 2, then tidbits, in which Da7e runs down what's happening in comics, Katey is very excited about having just seen The Fly, Devindra really likes what he seems from the new Showtime series Homeland, and Patches learns a few things from writing recaps of Two and a Half Men. We end, as always, with your lightning round answers for dessert.

This week on Operation Kino, it's the throwdown you've all been waiting for, as Katey and David stake out opposite sides of the debate to review 50/50, with Patches nervously occupying the middle ground between them. OK, so it's not exactly the kind of battle royale we had back in the days of X-Men: First Class and Transformers, but it's a lively conversation that leads us into our Segment Three, talking about the value of physically owning movies, and whether David's massive collection of Criterion DVDs is impressive or just a compulsion. We start, though, with a Lightning Round dedicated to cinematic phone calls, and then we move into tidbits, where Da7e runs down what's happening in fall TV, Katey wants to make sure you know about the new indie Take Shelter, David floats a possible new theory about the sinking of the Titanic, and Patches tries to recover from having just seen Kenneth Lonergan's Margaret.

I know the diva-off in Burlesque last fall got a lot of people excited-- Cher and X-tina, together at last!-- but this is the showdown I've somehow been waiting my entire life to see.

Yes, it's a little unsettling to see Dolly Parton singing Chris Brown's "Forever," and yes, I'm a grown adult who's well aware that this looks cheesy as hell. But Dolly Parton hasn't been in a movie since 2002, and Queen Latifah has a way of making all of her dumb movies delightful, and I'll be damned if I miss this. Joyful Noise isn't out until January, so when the Oscar glut of good movies is over, we'll know we have one more thing to look forward to.

This week on Operation Kino, we had an extremely hard time deciding whether or not to discuss the merits of the new Taylor Lautner vehicle Abduction or figure out what's up with that flash-in-the-pan Brad Pitt in Moneyball. OK, just kidding-- obviously we reviewed Moneyball, even though Patches and Katey had just gotten back from a screening of Abduction and had Lautner on the brain. After Moneyball we took a look at the box office fortunes of the movie we reviewed last week, Drive, and wondered if studios have an obligation to advertise their movies as truthfully as possible. But first there's a Lightning Round dedicated to dull-as-dishwater action stars like Lautner, and then tidbits, in which Da7e plugs the indie film Archie's Final Project, David is surviving the New York Film Festival, Patches gives us a postmortem on Abduction and Katey talks about saving Africa through the power of being white in Machine Gun Preacher. We end, as always, with your Lightning Round answers for dessert.

I actually did watch the Emmys this year in order to help our TV Editor/Managing Editor Kelly West liveblog them (you can relive the magic if you so choose here). They were kind of a slog, as is usually the case for me with awards shows that aren't the Oscars. But I loved the Miss America-style lineup of all the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy nominees, which was the amazing dream-team lineup of Amy Poehler (who stepped up to the stage first when her name was announced as a nominee), Tina Fey, Martha Plimpton, Edie Falco, Laura Linney and Melissa McCarthy. And then when McCarthy won-- and you could tell she totally didn't expect it-- the genuine joy on the faces of all the other nominees made it all the better. Now there's this image that actually captures that joy-- unlike those still shots from other awards shows where you can see the other nominees scowling, everyone here seems completely thrilled.

Yes, I know awards are meaningless. But pictures like this, of rich famous people being happy for each other, still manage to make me happy most of the time.

This week on Operation Kino, the charisma of Ryan Gosling is so powerful that we were forced to surrender one member and bring in just three of us to review Drive. OK, in fact Da7e hadn't seen Drive and couldn't make the recording, but Patches, David and Katey managed to soldier on without him somehow. After our Drive review we caught up on the Toronto Film Festival, where Katey had been for the past week, and wondered why a festival with 300 movies seems to only get conversation about 25 of them. But first, we kicked things off with a lightning round devoted to animated Disney musicals, and then went into tidbits, in which David gets a good laugh out of the end of Entourage, Patches wonders why his Straw Dogs audience didn't get the point, and Katey wants you to remember how awesome the cast of Contagion really is.

It was a busy weekend for me at the Toronto Film Festival, to the point that I haven't had much time to really write about anything I've seen. But I did have to share, in photos, the totally surreal experience of seeing Morgan Spurlock's miserably titled but very enjoyable new documentary Comic Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope. I've barely recovered from attending San Diego Comic Con back in July, but heading up to the film's premiere I was greeted by the sight of not just Storm Troopers on the street, but a row of costumed heroes on the stairs going up to the theater. These look just like photos from Comic Con I've taken many times, but I can't tell you how weird it feels to see it in a new context, like showing up at a Fourth of July barbecue attended by Santa Claus.

This week on Operation Kino, we're coming to you live! Well, we were if you attended our live show last Monday, where we got to be part of the inaugural year of the New York Hell's Kitchen Film Festival and bring the usual Operation Kino hijinks and slight disorganization to a live audience. Lucky for you, if you weren't there, we recorded the whole thing for this week's podcast, and you can listen below. We've changed up the format slightly for the sake of the live audience, but kick things off as usual with a Lightning Round dedicated to film festivals, then tidbits that are focused around a single theme: what we've learned at the movies this year, and what we're looking forward to this fall. Then, instead of the usual review and Segment 3, we bring in the audience for something called Film Court, which allows us to debate the relative merits of Steven Spielberg and Christopher Nolan, plus throwing down about whether or not we still need movie theaters. We end with the audience's lightning round answers for dessert.

And if you're still in New York and want to check out the Hell's Kitchen Film Festival for yourself, our very own Matt Patches will be conducting a Q&A on the closing night of the festival for the film Lost in Italy, with the movie's director and star Glen Murphy. It's happening this Sunday, September 11, at 7 p.m. at The Producer's Club. Check it out and tell Matt Patches that Operation Kino sent you!

In case you missed it on the main site, I'm recording as many video blogs as possible from this year's Toronto Film Festival to capture what I've seen, where I've seen it, and whatever else is happening of interest around here. Below is the first video blog, recorded on the back porch of the super-hip, concrete block apartment where I'm staying. For more detailed writeups of each film you can go here; keep checking back for more as the festival rolls on.

This week on Operation Kino, we've got too much movie reviewing energy for one movie to handle, so we took on two: The Debt, the new Nazi-hunter spy movie, and Warrior, the upcoming mixed martial arts drama. We follow that with a Segment Three about our own movie-watching habits when we're at home, and wondering if the ease of using services like Netflix Watch Instantly or Hulu Plus means we don't watch as many new, out-there movies as we used to. First, though, there's a lightning round in which we join Hollywood in their revisionist history, then tidbits in which David shares what he's learned after two days of film school, Patches defends George Lucas (I know!), Katey shares what she learned watching the VMAs via Twitter, and Da7e wants Showtime to do a good job with their Under the Dome series. We end, as always, with your lightning round answers for dessert.

And one more reminder! This Monday, September 5, we'll be doing a LIVE SHOW as part of the New York Hell's Kitchen Film Festival. The FREE show happens at 7 pm at The Producer's Club, located at 358 West 44th Street. There will be a special "Film Court" debate format plus the usual lightning round silliness, and also swag, prizes, and who knows what else. If you think you'll make it please RSVP to our Facebook invite.

If you're a big fan of The Hunger Games, you've almost definitely seen the short teaser that debuted last night during MTV's Video Music Awards. The teaser doesn't show off very much footage, and people who aren't familiar with the books might wonder what the big deal is about a girl running through the woods. But I loved it primarily for what we didn't see-- no love triangle, no romantic moments with Peeta, no hint at all that this is a movie about anything other than one girl's struggle to survive in a brutal game.

That is what the books are about, but given how much Lionsgate seems to want The Hunger Games to be their equivalent of Twilight, I've been worried that the movie would emphasize star-crossed love over kickass fights and political unrest. This teaser has passed the test for now, but we've still yet to see where Lionsgate will take things when the full marketing campaign gears up. Last week, before the MTV teaser had premiered, I sat down with Perri Nemiroff, author of The Hunger Games Countdown column at Movies.com, to talk about some of our concerns for the marketing campaign. You can check out the video of that conversation below, and let me know if you're similarly concerned, or if last night's teaser has put you at ease.

This week on Operation Kino, we're doing things a little differently. It's been 25 episodes since we first started keeping official count, and we decided to take this little anniversary as an opportunity to change up our format and tell you not just what we think of this week's crop of new releases, but how we think about movies in general. All four of us came prepared with one movie that we don't just love, but that we think explains something about the way we look at movies. We're calling this format the "Quarter Quell," which will sound familiar if you've read The Hunger Games-- don't worry, our version is far less violent. David starts things off with Paul Schrader's Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, which he fits in with the idea of film presenting "ecstatic truth"; Patches adores Groundhog Day not just because it's funny and well-made, but because it's a movie he can show anyone; Da7e watches Fight Club as an example of how characters can develop even in a really non-traditional narrative; and Katey closes things out with The Apartment as a way to get a glimpse into a far-away time, and also just a damn well-written movie.

But even with the new format, some things stay the same--we start things off with a summer-ending lightning round, and end, as always, with your lightning round answers for dessert.

Don't forget that on Monday, September 5, we'll be doing a LIVE SHOW as part of the New York Hell's Kitchen Film Festival. We don't have all the details just yet, but the show will be around 7 or 8 p.m. at The Producer's Club, located at 358 West 44th Street. Stay tuned for more details and come out and see us!

After an even longer hiatus than the earlier long hiatus-- it's been a busy summer!-- we're back with the ongoing series Virgin Territory, in which I watch a movie I've never seen and talk about it with someone who loves it. This week I sit down with Max Evry, movie writer about town, to talk about a movie he wanted me to watch so badly that he gave me the DVD for my birthday: The Road Warrior. For whatever reason he didn't want me to start with the first movie in the George Miller series, Mad Max, so my first introduction to Mel Gibson and his expert driving skills came once the oil crisis had hit and gasoline scarcity had turned Australia into a post-apocalyptic wasteland, where Lord Humongous and his cronies reign supreme.

Check out our 15 minute conversation below, in which we talk about the lasting cultural legacy of The Road Warrior, how Mel Gibson's performance still stands completely independent of all the scandalous stuff that came later, and marvel at the fact that no stuntmen died in filming some of the truly amazing action set pieces in this thing.

For the rest of the Virgin Territory series, go here, where you can find me talking Apocalypse Now with Dave Gonzales, Superman: The Movie with Matt Patches, All the President's Men with James Rocchi, Terms of Endearment with Mike Ryan, and The Evil Dead with Eric Eisenberg.

This week on Operation Kino, our reviews are bit of a mishmash, as Katey and David hash out their feelings for One Day for a bit, and Katey strikes out on her own to tell you what she thought of Fright Night (Patches and Da7e sat out this movie week-- on some level we can't blame them). We follow that with a Segment Three devoted to the way Hollywood is strip-mining the 80s for movie remakes, and pick out a few 80s titles we think absolutely cannot possibly be remade, period. First, though, there's a lightning round inspired by the swordplay of Conan the Barbarian, then tidbits in which David talks about having his short film "Proposals" in the New York Hell's Kitchen Film Festival, Patches is severaly disappointed by the Off-Broadway revival of Rent, Katey reports from Lebowski Fest and Da7e wonders if the doomed Johnny Depp Lone Ranger movie might work after all. We end, as always, with your lightning round answers for dessert.

We've also got a very exciting announcement! On Monday, September 5, we'll be doing a LIVE SHOW as part of the New York Hell's Kitchen Film Festival. We don't have all the details just yet, but the show will be around 7 or 8 p.m. at The Producer's Club, located at 358 West 44th Street. Stay tuned for more details and come out and see us!

Wearing bathrobes and cargo shorts, Helga helmets and purple jumpsuits, carrying ball polishers and clinking White Russians, thousands of Big Lebowski fans descended upon the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City last night-- and while there wasn't exactly a visible cloud of pot smoke surrounding the place, you could pretty much fill it in for yourself. The night's Q&A and screening was a promotion for the new Blu-Ray edition of The Big Lebowski, but it was also the second night of Lebowski Fest, the 10-year-running convention dedicated to all things The Dude. Needless to say, the people who have been attending the convention for a decade basically lost their minds when The Jesus (John Turturro), Maude (Julianne Moore), Walter (John Goodman), Donny (Steve Buscemi) and of course The Dude (Jeff Bridges) took the stage for the conversation.

The producers of the evening have put together a highlight reel of the Q&A, which you can watch below. It doesn't really capture the feel of the evening, though, which was dominated by fans screaming quotes from the movie at the stage, which had Goodman cracking up the entire time and allowed Buscemi to kick things off with, "Well, first of all, you shut the fuck up." Then there was Turturro saying he's gotten a lot of "sex mail" written to The Jesus, Bridges claiming that The Dude is now working as a masseuse, and Goodman's response to the notion of a sequel: "It'll never happen. Why talk about it?" Bridges then closed out the night with the message he hopes everyone takes away from the movie: "That it's just, like, your opinion, man."